Bang Bang Bangkok 18th - 20th Feb

By Sabitra Kundu

Imagine the situation – early morning you walk into the designated hotel expecting all your colleagues and other Sightsavers partners to have checked into (a day earlier) and you to be accommodated with them and then you are told (in that sing-a-song Thai accent) that no one from Sightsavers India has joined in. Well that was the situation I faced when I walked into the 11th floor reception of Hotel Prince Palace with Mr. Ranganathen (from partner CTRD, Tamil Nadu). After lots of difficulties (as they did not understand my Indian English and I could not their Thai- English) we managed to track the rest of the Sightsavers team and join up with them.

The 1st Asia Pacific CBR Congress at Bangkok was been organised by WHO, UNESCAPS, Foundation of Asia – Pacific Development Centre on Disability and Ministry of Social Development and Human Security (Thailand). With over 650 participants from the entire Asia Pacific region it was indeed a big conglomeration of CBR people – planners, policy makers, implementers, beneficiaries, organisational representatives, etc.

The colourful programme was initiated by traditional Thai dance and was followed by the opening ceremony. There was representation from senior level people from the Thailand government, United Nations, WHO, ILO etc. Post all this the proceedings of the Congress was initiated.

During the 3 days a range of topics were covered through discussions, presentations, debates (as well as side meetings over tea and lunch). Some of the topics that were covered included UNCRPD, CBR Matrix, CBR and women with disabilities, BMF, CBR and alliances, Research and evidence based practice in CBR, CBR and accessibility, CBR networks, CBR and self help groups, etc.

While some of the presentations were really useful, some were not at all informative and some did not even speak on the topic assigned (and rather spoke on their organisation and what they were involved in). While at times it was hard to choose which of the concurrent sessions to attend, at times the choice was evident (but not the learning’s that we all garnered!).

The Congress provided an excellent platform to network with representatives from across the region and interact with many others about whom we had only heard. We also had a chance to interact with our Sightsavers colleagues and partners from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in addition to interacting with Diane (from HH).

During one of the side meetings the representatives from India met and during that meeting Mr. C Mahesh was chosen to temporarily represent India at the Asia Pacific Zone.

In Bangkok the city timings were not at all conducive for us all to undertake any sightseeing in the evening. The city started as early as 8 AM and all shops and establishments closed by 430 PM – well before the scheduled end time for the Congress. However, we the enterprising Indians had found the directions to some authentic Indian restaurants and not only did we satiate ourselves with dinner at the end of the day (which included Thai lunch that was not liked by all) but we also passed on the information to other Indians (including members from LCI and SLF) and also on one occasion took along our Pakistani colleague.

We did manage to do a little of sightseeing on Saturday when we went around the Grand Palace and the Temple of Emerald Buddha in the heart of city. Our attempt to go to the famous weekend market at Jatuchak was not possible owing to the horrible traffic scenario in Bangkok (I for once did not feel out of Mumbai thanks to the traffic snarls!!).